UC Merced

Action and perception are codependent processes with continuously updating bidirectional interaction, resulting in a sum that is greater than it’s parts. Here, I focus on the auditory and motor systems, and use musical timing to explore topics including entrainment, simulation, prediction and correction, and motor inhibition. In collaboration with numerous co-authors, I show evidence for a strong relationship between sound perception and body movements. Our auditory environment has clear and measurable impacts on subcortical and cortical movement control and planning (Chapters 2-4), and on neural signatures of movement control (Chapter 5). I show that music can be used to explore predictive and feedback-based (Chapters 2-4, 6,7), as well as inhibitory aspects of movement control (Chapter 5). I discuss claims that neural activity used for movement control and planning can causally contribute to auditory perception (Chapters 6, 7, Discussion), and I present evidence in support of these views (Chapters 6, 7). The robust synergy between human audition and action has enormous potential for clinical applications for people recovering from stroke and with movement disorders, but also for typically aging adults (Chapter 3) and healthy young adults (Chapters 2-4). However, the majority of the work presented here is intended to add insights to the fundamental understanding of the brain as a predicting and adapting organ that guides human action through a fast-paced and multisensory world. This dissertation, Sound Guides Action and Action Scaffolds Sound Perception, is submitted by Jessica M. Ross in the summer of 2018 in partial fulfillment of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced, under the guidance of Ramesh Balasubramaniam.